Federal investigators have begun questioning current and former CIA employees about ex-Director John Brennan's involvement in the agency's 2016 Russian election interference assessment, marking an escalation in what has become a politically charged review of the intelligence community's work during the Obama administration.
FBI agents started the interviews last week at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, focusing specifically on Brennan's congressional testimony and the decision to include an unverified dossier about President Trump's alleged Russian ties in a 2017 intelligence assessment on Moscow's election meddling efforts, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
Brennan has previously stated he opposed including the dossier but was overruled by then-FBI Director James Comey. The former CIA chief, who ran the agency from 2013 to 2017, now faces scrutiny from multiple fronts in the Trump administration's renewed focus on the origins of the Russia investigation.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican chairing the House Judiciary Committee, referred Brennan to the Justice Department earlier, alleging the former CIA director made false statements to Congress in 2023 related to the Russia probe. Brennan's legal team has rejected those charges.
In a December letter, Brennan's attorneys revealed that prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida informed them that Brennan is a target of a grand jury investigation connected to the intelligence community's assessment of Russian interference efforts. Any false statement prosecution would typically proceed before a federal grand jury in Washington, where jurors have shown reluctance to pursue some cases brought by the Trump administration.
The investigation operates against a backdrop of determined efforts by Trump and his officials to relitigate the 2016 election and promote claims that Trump faced an elaborate Obama-era conspiracy to sabotage his presidency. Those assertions have faced significant scrutiny from independent investigators and Trump appointees alike.
A sweeping 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, which examined more than a million documents and involved over 200 witnesses across three years, concluded that the intelligence assessment about Russian interference was accurate. The committee, led at the time by Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state, found that Russia had spread disinformation online and leaked stolen Democratic National Committee emails to undermine Hillary Clinton and boost Trump's candidacy. Both Republicans and Democrats on the committee endorsed those findings unanimously.
Special Counsel John Durham, whom Trump appointed during his first term to investigate the origins of the Russia probe, reported finding no criminal conspiracy among Obama administration officials to fabricate intelligence about Russian operations. Durham filed no charges against the CIA officers overseeing the 2017 assessment.
The CIA and FBI have declined to comment on the current investigation. The Justice Department has not responded to inquiries about the matter.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The irony cuts deep: a Trump-appointed special counsel found no conspiracy, a bipartisan Senate committee endorsed the intelligence as sound, yet the machinery of federal prosecution now grinds on, raising questions about whether this is justice or political vendetta dressed in legal robes."
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